This invention relates to a family of devices serving as termite detectors, concentrators and toxicant dispensers. It also relates to a method of deploying such devices in concert as a means of detecting, measuring, concentrating, tracking and suppressing existing termite colonies and insuring effective suppression response within a monitored area in the event of future attacks by subterranean termites.
The cyclodienes were banned from the field of termite control in 1987. This action left a significant void. No equivalent soil drench termiticides have since been discovered to replace them.
Homeowners and businesses in the United States of America annually spend in excess of $1.7 billion to combat termite infestations. However, the USA is not alone. Costs associated with termite damage are significant throughout the Americas, as well as in Africa, Europe, Asia, Australasia and Oceania.
Recent Termite Control Developments
To fill the void left by the cyclodienes, new approaches have been developed in the fields of termite detection, monitoring and baiting. Many of these focus on pinpointing active termites and feeding them small, measured amounts of termite-specific toxicants in tamper resistant bait servers. The object is to reduce the population of the termite colony to the point where it cannot infest entities of economic value.
Once termites have been successfully suppressed, the area is monitored indefinitely for new signs of active termites. If new signs are found, a new round of toxicant baiting is initiated.
Factors Affecting Cost and Efficacy
These new approaches, though potentially effective, cost much more than the older methodologies they replace. This happens because they are labor-intensive, and require highly skilled technicians. In many cases the demonstrated success rates of these approaches have been unusually disappointing, in terms of the time required to achieve suppression of active termites. Such failures are often linked to poor training, neglect, and user-unfriendly methods and devices.
Human Factors
The performance of labor-intensive, repetitive operations varies based on the nature of their accompanying psychological and physiological rewards and detractors. Positive rewards lead to improvements in performance. Negative detractors lead to performance degradation.
Even in areas actively foraged by subterranean termites, only a small fraction of prior art termite detectors become infested. Despite this, inspections of these devices must be performed carefully and consistently. Inspection of prior art detectors requires intellectual attention to detail and physical articulation of major joints of the human musculoskeletal system.
Nearly 1 in 7 Americans is afflicted with arthritis, making this disease the number one cause of mobility limitation in the United States. Others are afflicted with forms of temporary or chronic mobility dysfunctions. Still others suffer from temporary or chronic attention deficits. Such persons are often employed in the Pest Control industry, including the field of termite inspection and control. Prior art termite detectors may prevent many of these persons from performing routine inspections of these devices at all. For others, they make it difficult or impossible to consistently inspect them with an appropriate attention to detail.
The present invention achieves technical advantages by taking advantage of certain instinctive behaviors of subterranean termites, and of simple visual faculties of human observers with a family of devices able to detect, measure, collect, track, and suppress subterranean termites according to the present invention. The inspection process for each member of this family requires few inspection skills and minimal articulation of the joints. The inspector passes over a defined inspection circuit and shines a flashlight into the signal ports of devices of the present invention. If a distinctive reflection is observed, the device is inactive; if not, termites have sealed it.
By placing these devices around a structure, as well as in proximity to other sources of cellulose in the vicinity, it becomes possible to not only discover the fact of termite activity, but to measure its intensity and track its movements as well. The interval of time that passes between initial placement of the devices and their sealing by termites is a measure of the vigor and population of the termites that are foraging at that location. The number of devices that become infested within a given distance of one another measures dispersion of that termite population.
Once devices of the present invention fitted to serve as detectors are found to contain active termites, they are left in place to serve as concentrators for termite activity. This assures a constancy of termite activity in that area. These devices are then supplemented with a device of the present invention that is fitted to serve as a toxicant dispenser. The latter device is placed proximate to the reporting detector. The toxicant dispenser is inspected in the same manner as the detector. However, the absence of a distinctive reflection from the toxicant dispenser informs the inspector that the toxicant has been depleted and requires additional supplementation. The inspector then places a fresh toxicant dispenser next to the depleted device.
This sequence continues until termites cease depleting the toxicant dispensers. This occurs when the termites have been successfully suppressed. At that time a fresh device fitted to serve as a termite detector is installed, bringing the detection-suppression process through a complete cycle.
Under certain circumstances it is desirable to inoculate foraging termites with a tracking material that can be detected when the termites are collected at another location. A device of the present invention is fitted with food material impregnated with the tracking material and is placed at a desired location within an active termite foraging zone. A second device of the instant invention fitted to serve as a collector is placed at a desired location in another active termite foraging zone. After the termites have depleted the tracking material they seal the signal port of the device, alerting the inspector that the tracking material is consumed. The collector at the other location is then removed from the ground and termites within it are withdrawn for analysis to determine if any of the tracking material from the first device is present in their bodies or in the fecal material they have deposited in the collector. If the tracking material is found, it can be inferred that the same termite colony is involved in both foraging areas. If not, two termite colonies are likely involved.
Areas that have achieved successful termite suppression are monitored continuously into the future. This insures prompt discovery of a rebound in termite activity, either as the result of resurgence of the suppressed colony or the introduction of a new one.